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The Supreme Court’s reading of section 2 in this decision is that a firm violates section 2 if it has a monopoly position and if it acquired that position in a way that did not reflect competition on the merits. As we will see in chapter 10, court have considered mainly market share in deciding whether or not a firm has a monopoly within a meaning of the antitrust laws. To decide whether or not a firm’s conduct represents normal industrial development, courts have carried out a detailed review of the development of the industry.

The Supreme Court had no trouble finding standard oil in violation of section 2 of the Sherman act, in view of its market share and in view of the techniques employed by the company as it grew to dominance in the oil industry. As a result of this decision, standard oil was broken up into 33 “survivor” companies.

This remedy did not bring about competitive structure or behavior in the U.S. oil industry; however, since ownership of the survivor companies remained in the hands of the owners of the parent firm.